Imvros (Gökçeada) is an island of the Nostheastern Aegean Sea, situated at a distance of 14 nautical miles from the entrance of the Dardanelles Strait and 10 and 12 miles respectively from the neighboring Greek islands of Lemnos and Samothrace. It consists of hills and small mountains which form many valleys and has two fertile plains. Its water reserves are plentiful and of high quality and the surrounding seas are among the richest fishing grounds of the Aegean Sea. According to all historical sources and the traditions and cultural heritage of the native Imvrians, Imvros was always inhabited exclusively by people of greek origin. Imvros is first mentioned in Homer’s Iliad. Later, after the Persian Wars, the island is colonized by the Athenias who sent lot-holders called “klerouchoi” (landless and poor citizens of the smaller communities of the Athenian basin, constituting the great city-state of Athens) to colonize the island. This political development changed once and for all the population composition as well as the cultural and political character of the island, whose fate was from then on linked to that of Athens for the rest of the ancient time, as it fully adopted the Athenian administration system. The name of the newfound colony was the “Demos Athinaion o en Imvro” [“Demos (City/People) of Athenians on Imvros” ] with its own ecclesia, parliament, prytaneum and polemarch. Numerous findings bear witness of the prosperity of this Greek city. Thereafter, the history of Imvros remains closely tied to that of the neighboring Lemnos throughout the Roman, Hellenistic, Byzantine periods and the same applies to the period after the Ottoman conquest. In October 1912, during the Balkan wars, a naval unit under lieutenant Pantelis Horn, disembaked from the Greek battleship “Averof” and seized Imvros. During the 1st World War, and particularly in 1914, the English and the French established the “Headquarters of the Dardanelles Expeditionary Force” on the island.

According to the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, Imvros and Tenedos were ceded to Greece. However, the Asia Minor Catastrophe changed once again the facts for Imbros and Tenedos. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 ceded these two islands to Turkey.